


Context

by mahoni



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: 1000-5000 Words, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-13
Updated: 2008-03-13
Packaged: 2017-10-03 09:12:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mahoni/pseuds/mahoni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An Ancient device paints Daniel Jackson's body with words, and John tries to transcribe it all without thinking Bad Thoughts. He fails.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Context

"This is weird," John said.

Daniel Jackson twisted to look over his shoulder at him. "What's weird? Something about the text, or just...this in general?"

John dropped the pen and shook out his cramped hand. With the other hand he gestured at the notepad on his lap, and then at Jackson, who sat cross-legged in front of him. Jackson was shirtless; and for reasons known only to the Ancients who had constructed the device built into the wall nearby, he was also covered from the neck down in rows and rows of neat, black Ancient writing. "This in general."

Jackson turned away again, sitting still and patient. "Ah."

John picked up the pen and bent forward, sliding a finger across Jackson's lower back to find his place. He winced as Jackson twitched. "Sorry, Dr. Jackson."

"Not your fault I'm ticklish. And you might as well call me Daniel. I mean. All things considered."

"Okay. Daniel." John stumbled a little over the name; dropping the formality of 'Dr. Jackson' made him feel even more weird about the situation. Or possibly he was feeling guilty. The ticklishness was not his fault, but it _was_ his fault that he kept forgetting not to touch.

Really, he hardly knew the guy. They hadn't spent much time together the first time Dr. Jackson -- er, Daniel -- was on Atlantis, and Daniel had spent most of this trip with Colonel Carter.

However.

Over the last couple of hours of copying the writing from Daniel's body, he'd intimately explored every inch of what was an incredibly firm and inviting torso. Daniel kept blushing, and shivering when John accidentally touched him or breathed on him, which no doubt had nothing to do with attraction and everything to do with, you know, _awkward_, but still.

And he smelled really good, which didn't help.

Not to mention, the whole thing where he had strange, delicate symbols written in a meticulous hand all over his body? Yeah, that was hot.

"You know, I'm going to have to agree."

John nearly swallowed his tongue. Had he said that _out loud_?

"I've experienced a lot of odd things," Daniel said. "But, yes, this does stand out as particularly weird."

John thought determinedly of icy cold nights back in Antarctica and tried not to die as he copied the last visible line onto the notepad. "Yeah, well. It's about to get weirder."

Daniel sighed. "End of the line, huh?"

"Yep." He tossed the notepad and pen aside and stood, stretching. His back popped, muscles screaming from hours sitting hunched over, copying half a dozen pages worth of writing from Daniel's skin. They'd tried capturing the writing with the DVR, but for some reason the recorder couldn't pick it up. That meant they couldn't be sure the camera would capture it either, and since Daniel didn't want to risk the text vanishing if they got too far away from the Ancient device that had caused it to appear, here they were.

It could be worse, John thought. Daniel had smooth, bare skin on his chest and back and fairly light hair on his arms and, probably, legs too. It was easy to see the symbols...not to mention the curves and planes of Daniel's muscles and _he was not going to think about that_. Because the point, he reminded himself, was that it could absolutely be worse. If the device had transferred all of that writing onto John instead, he would have had a very unpleasant date with a full body shave.

Which would have involved razor burn and a lot of itchiness in really awkward places and would just have been a really unsexy experience all around. _Unsexy_. Key word, there.

He shook himself and gave Daniel a hand up, taking the papers he held out. Daniel had been reading the pages as they filled up; John glanced over them, but only recognized a couple of simple words. One of these days he was going to have to learn Ancient. Of course, he'd been telling himself that since they first got to Atlantis four years ago...

"Are you able to translate much of this?" he asked.

Daniel nodded, flexing and stretching out his own cramped muscles, and then crouched to untie his boots. John tried not to watch.

"Quite a bit, actually."

"Anything interesting?"

"Yes. Um, yes, a few interesting things."

Daniel had his boots and socks off, and John could see more writing on his feet. _Geez._ As Daniel reached for his belt, John knelt to put the finished pages in Daniel's pack, turning his back to offer some privacy.

"Yeah, this is gonna be awkward," Daniel muttered.

John could feel the beginning of a truly magnificent blush creeping up his neck. 'Awkward' didn't even begin to cover it. He heard the belt come apart. The zipper. And then the slide of fabric down long legs...

Now would be a great time, John thought desperately, to make a list of all the really boring and unsexy things the text could possibly be about. _History,_ he thought. _Puddlejumper repair manual; really long grocery receipt; Birds of Atlantica; propaganda; sports scores; somebody's homework..._ Who knows, maybe it was an Ancient cookbook. All kinds of really boring and _unsexy_ possibilities.

"Why couldn't the device have just...put the information on a crystal?" he said under his breath. "Or hell, do it the old fashioned way and put it in a damned book."

He stood and turned and the blush flared up over his cheeks. When they'd realized what they were in for, they had spread a blanket out on the floor; Daniel stood on it, completely naked, gazing mournfully at his t-shirt which he held before him in a strategic position.

"I don't know if I'd feel weirder with my shirt back on or..." He floundered. John was immensely glad he wasn't the only one blushing, at least. "Um. I mean, would it call attention to... Um."

John scrubbed a hand down his face and looked around the room, at the cool blue and gray walls, the mosaic floor, the evil people-painting Ancient device in the corner -- at anything but Daniel. Jesus. It suddenly occurred to him that it could have been Rodney in here with him when that device went off, instead of Daniel. Or Ronon, or Teyla...

A line of thought that, as it turned out, did not help. _Cold shower. Ice cold shower. Cold cold cold_. "Yeah," he managed eventually. "I...I really don't know what to tell you."

Daniel eventually decided to turn the shirt into a tiny, bunched-up pillow into which he could bury his face while he stretched out on his stomach on the floor. John retrieved the notepad and pen and sat down beside him.

He had wondered if the writing would literally cover every inch of Daniel; he'd hoped it would, for example, skip the _really_ awkward parts and pick back up on his legs, but no. The symbols were in fact everywhere.

A horrible thought struck him. "Er. So. Is there writing...is it on your...uh..."

Daniel nodded into his shirt and said, his voice muffled, "I was thinking I would transcribe that part, though."

"Yes!" John said, starting to breathe again. "Yes, good idea. Really, really good idea."

John took a deep breath and told himself to focus on the symbols. He thought that working his way down past the tan line was going to be hell, but despite Daniel's, wow, really fine ass John found he could manage okay so long as he continually reminded himself to focus on the symbols. And also to not touch. And also took frequent breaks to close his eyes and think of things like that unfortunate incident with the pitcher of icy cold lemonade at his girlfriend's house when he was fourteen.

He got all the way down one leg, and then had to move on to a new sheet of paper. He tore the finished sheet off.

"Did you want to read over this one?" he said.

Daniel lifted his face out of his t-shirt and propped his chin thoughtfully on his forearm.

"Okay," he said finally. "Might as well."

John handed it off and resumed transcribing.

"So you didn't tell me," John said. "What exactly am I copying, here?"

There was a long pause, and then Daniel said, "Well, it's a text about...sort of about...anatomy."

"Oh. Like, a medical text?"

Daniel had a mole on the back of his thigh. John squinted at it, trying to figure out if it was just naturally really dark, or if there was a spot of the magical not-really-there-according-to-the-DVR Ancient ink there too.

"Er." Daniel paused again. "Are you familiar with Burton's translation of the Kama Sutra?"

John snorted. "Oh yeah." Then he froze. "Wait. Wait. What?"

"I'd say that what you're copying may prove that the original Indian text is a derivative of an earlier Ancient text. At least, the parts about sexual pleasure are. Well. The Kama Sutra didn't cover sexual encounters between males, but I suspect the Ancient device in this room tailors the text to the presumed participants."

Daniel kept going, wandering off on a tangent about whether the exclusion of all but male-female acts occurred before or after the original text left the hands of the last Ancients on Earth, but John was only half listening. He was stuck on the fact that the whole time he'd been trying really hard not to think inappropriate thoughts about Daniel Jackson, Daniel Jackson had been sitting there _reading porn_. Either the man was a robot, or...or he wasn't, which was a really interesting possibility, but one John was pretty sure he should not pursue.

One thing was absolutely certain, though.

"Carter's going to kill me," John said.

Daniel stopped mid-sentence. After a long pause he sighed. _And started to sit up_. John clapped a hand over his eyes and fumbled with the notepad, clutching it against his lap.

"Oh, I don't know," Daniel said. "If she was going to get mad, I'm pretty sure you're not the one she'd get mad at. But honestly, she knows how...bizarre things can get off-world."

He sounded pretty convincingly rueful, actually, but John wasn't buying it.

"Uh-huh," John said. He dropped his hand, risking a dubious glance at Daniel. He got an eyeful of broad, smooth chest covered with delicate symbols; but at least the t-shirt was back in its strategic position. Thank god. "Naked erotic body art bizarre?"

"Er. Not exactly, but we've come close. And it's not like you and I have done anything here," Daniel pointed out.

"True." That had to count for something, right?

"And, really, even if we did..."

Daniel said it so off-handedly, but his eyes were curious.

The look between them went on way too long, long enough that the magnificent blush from earlier came back in force and also took a turn southward. He fully intended to say _I really cannot have sex with my CO's best friend_, but what came out was,

"I've never actually read the Kama Sutra. I just looked at the pictures."

Daniel quirked an eyebrow. Then he leaned back and drew the page he'd been reading across the blanket to him and picked it up. "Well...I could read this version to you, if you'd like."

John was up on his knees before he knew what he was doing, leaning in, sliding a hand around the back of Daniel's neck and pulling him into a kiss. There was no resistance; Daniel's mouth was soft and willing, letting John deepen and draw out the kiss until they were both breathless.

He pulled back finally. Daniel caught the front of his shirt, lightly, not holding him in place, just enough to discourage him from pulling too far away. John still wasn't entirely convinced Carter wouldn't kill him if she found out, but the curiosity in Daniel's eyes had started to burn and he was staring at John's mouth like he hadn't been done with that kiss and wanted it back as soon as possible.

"Wait," John said.

Daniel's gaze lifted to meet his, and John sincerely hoped he wasn't going to regret this.

"Research." He let his hand drift down Daniel's neck, trailing his fingertips over the lines of symbols that followed the curve between neck and shoulder. "You read, and then maybe we'll find some practical applications for -- "

The sharp tug on his shirt pulled him off balance and he fell into the kiss, bearing Daniel to the ground.

*


End file.
